Tag Archives: thrift

$pent Studios, ‘Seattle’s newest underpriced vintage store,’ is now open on E Pike

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“And they’ll still say it’s overpriced…” (Image: $pent Studios)

(Image: $pent Studios)

$pent Studios has moved up on Capitol Hill.

The thrift shop, fashion, and creative community brand had been growing underground a few blocks away on 12th Ave and is now resident in the heart of the party on E Pike where it has replaced a candle bar to become part of the block home to the Comet.

$pent, from Seattle-based clothing designer, artist, and vintage curator Hudson Wakefield operates as a hub for thrift fashion, streetwear, handmade and upcycled clothing, and art installations.

The vibe is collabs with Goodwill that slap, eat, and are extremely valid.

Beyond retail, $pent has functioned as an all-ages DIY creative space and venue with live music performances, art pop-ups, and community showcases. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Break Away vintage and thrift now on Pike — and Pine

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(Image: Break Away)

The Break Away team on the move

You are not seeing double. The crew at Capitol Hill thrift and vintage market Break Away have expanded with a second showroom in the neighborhood. You can now find the original shop on E Pike and a new second store of racks and piles of thrift and vintage clothing at Pine and Boylston.

How it all fits together, you’ll have to ask Break Away about, but the grand opening of the E Pine space brought a line around the block for “Break Away Steals” and shoppers digging through racks and piles for bargains and sick cuts.

CHS reported this spring on Break Away and owners including Nevin Poyneer and Tanner Callies growing from street vintage sales to a brick and mortar shop next to E Pike’s Late Night Vintage. “It’s like a maze,” co-owner Eddie Duran told CHS, “We have so many different rooms. We’ve got cool music, video games, foosball. You can just come hang out, get lost in here.” Continue reading →

Magpie Thrift ready for new beginning in longtime Broadway thrift shop space

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By Caroline Carr

When Lifelong announced it was getting out of the thrift business in January, they were naturally met with disappointment from the community. At the time, they couldn’t yet reveal what would come next for the Broadway thrift shop that had been a quintessential Capitol Hill spot for more than twenty years.

The Lifelong nonprofit will be moving away from retail to focus its efforts on an expanded kitchen and meal services mission doubling its size in Georgetown, making way for a new effort in reuse and recycling: Magpie Thrift.

The new beginning on Broadway starts next week.

Magpie will be a thrift store that encourages patrons to reuse, recycle, and make do with less.

“Although we are sad and have been grieving the loss of that identity, life is about moving forward and creating new things,” said owner Tamara Asakawa who previously served as the longtime director of Lifelong Thrift.

The new store will be a space for shopping along with upcycling workshops, senior downsizing assistance programs, and community events.

Magpie will begin as a for-profit venture that will fund the launch of Everly, a nonprofit created by Asakawa. In time, she hopes to raise the money to merge the two entities and return the thrift back to its roots as a nonprofit. Asakawa was intent on transparency with the store’s new for-profit status, and is confident that this is both necessary and temporary. Continue reading →

Magpie Thrift, part of larger mission of reuse and inclusivity, to open on Broadway

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Here’s hoping the strong window display game will continue in the space (Image: Lifelong Thrift)

It will be a smooth transition and the launch of a new Seattle nonprofit dedicated to reuse and recycling as Magpie Thrift opens on Broadway this spring.

The new store will take over the Lifelong Thrift space — and mission — on Broadway. Continue reading →

Recycle and reuse? New thrift shop lined up as Lifelong to say goodbye to Broadway store — UPDATE

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(image: CHS)

Lifelong, the Seattle nonprofit dedicated to helping those living with HIV, is shutting down its thrift division. A change on Broadway is coming but the old Lifelong Thrift Shop looks like it is being set for some vintage recycling with a new thrift entity lined up for the space.

The nonprofit said it is closing its thrift division in a Monday announcement. “We hope to carry on in the same space with a new name, unaffiliated with Lifelong and will be sharing details online and in our windows as they are finalized,” the announcement reads. UPDATE: Lifelong said it pulled down the announcement to update some information included in the post and will be making a new announcement soon.

Details on the timing of the change have not yet been announced. The Broadway store was Lifelong’s only retail location.

Business license filings show a new entity lined up for the 312 Broadway E address. The new thrift shop project includes current Lifelong Thrift director Tamara Asakawa, according to the filing. Continue reading →

Sad about Value Village? Here are 12 other Capitol Hill vintage and thrift shops

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(Images: Lifelong Thrift)

When Capitol Hill’s Value Village succumbs to “certain business conditions” and closes its doors Saturday after 20 years on 11th Ave, you can be sad for a little bit. Then go shopping — thrifting is, indeed, part of your Capitol Hill heritage.

Below, you’ll find 10 12 thrift and vintage shops across Capitol Hill. All were still open and had not lost their leases as of this posting! (Added two more: Everyday Music and Twice Sold!)

We almost certainly left something worthy off the list — let us know.

Meanwhile, nearly 40 employees will either move to work at other local Value Village locations or are looking for new jobs. Stop by and buy them a beer when the store closes for good at 6 PM Saturday night.

  • Lifelong Thrift, 312 Broadway E (CHS)
  • Out of the Close Thrift, 1016 E Pike (CHS)
  • Goodwill, 115 Belmont Ave E (CHS)
  • Take 2, 430 15th Ave E
  • Pretty Parlor, 119 Summit Ave E (CHS)
  • Revival, 233 Broadway E (CHS)
  • Crossroads Trading Co., 325 Broadway E (CHS)
  • Le Frock, 613 E Pike (CHS)
  • No Parking, 1102 E Pike (We need to write about these folks, no?)
  • Spin Cycle, 321 Broadway E (CHS)
  • Everyday Music, 1520 10th Ave (CHS)
  • Twice Sold Tales, 1833 Harvard Ave (CHS)

Also, in the Central District, you can check out Two Big Blondes at 2501 S Jackson.

Lifelong Thrift brings vintage Capitol Hill to new Broadway store

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Lifelong Thrift's Tamara Asakawa (Image: CHS)

Lifelong Thrift’s Tamara Asakawa (Image: CHS)

The old sign will stay -- kind of. Watch for a LIFELONG update later this spring (Image: CHS)

The old sign will stay — kind of. Watch for a LIFELONG update later this spring (Image: CHS)

It fits like a hand in a glove. A second-hand glove. Lifelong Thrift is set to open on Broadway Wednesday morning bringing a most Capitol Hill next chapter to the former space home to Red Light Vintage.

“I feel like we’re a part of the old Capitol Hill,” Thrift’s director Tamara Asakawa told CHS Tuesday as she and her crew of 10 employees and a dozen or so volunteers put the finishing touches on the gigantic new home for the store.

The new Lifelong Thrift combines the spaces left empty by the departure of the much-loved Red Light and its sibling boutique Aprie and at 12,500 square feet and two levels will be almost three times the size of the thrift’s former E Union location.

In November, CHS reported that the prospect of higher rent combined with lower than needed sales was forcing the ownership of Red Light, acknowledged as the Hill’s oldest vintage clothing store, to leave Broadway. Lifelong Thrift was slated for an earlier opening but a complication over a move-in date caused a costly delay for the nonprofit. Asakawa said the pluck of her crew and volunteers helped keep things on track even with the added cost and work of dealing with storage and waiting for the spaces to open up for the buildout to begin. Changes inside are few — in fact, you’ll see many remnants of Red Light left behind. But you’ll also find an opened up space that better connects the two wings of the shop. Continue reading →

Lifelong Thrift will replace Red Light on Broadway

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Inside the E Union store

Inside the E Union store (Image: Lifelong Thrift)

(Image: Lifelong Thrift)

(Image: Lifelong Thrift)

Be cool, Macklemore — You’ll still have a thrift shop on Broadway. CHS has learned Lifelong Thrift will take over the space slated to be left empty by Red Light Vintage’s exit from Broadway early next year.

“We are so excited about this move and what it means for the community,” said Tamara Asakawa, Lifelong Thrift’s executive director in a statement planned to be sent to media Wednesday afternoon. “We will now have so much more room to sell which will allow us to help more people. And that’s an amazing thing.”

At 12,500 square feet, the new Lifelong Thrift will be almost three times the size of the current E Union location.

Continue reading →

Happy customer appreciation day — Love, Lifelong

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1795351_10152001017449624_1205808660_oYes, the neighborhood is getting its very own Capitol Hill Goodwill. But there is already plenty of vintage love to go around. Some basic old “cheap stuff” love, too. Friday is E Union’s Lifelong Thrift Store annual customer appreciation sale:

Everything will be at least 50% off! It’s our thanks to you for doing good just by shopping. Your purchases support Lifelong’s work delivering services to people living with chronic serious illness. Thank You! http://www.llaa.org/lifelongthrift

Maybe you can find something to wear to Lifelong’s Gay Bingo fundraiser Saturday in Fremont.

Goodwill to open Capitol Hill store this spring

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The former home of Half Price Books is the future home of Goodwill

The former home of Half Price Books is the future home of Goodwill

He's excited

He’s very excited

CHS has learned that the grandaddy of thrift shopping is coming to Capitol Hill. Seattle Goodwill is planning to open a Capitol Hill store in the former home of Half Price Books that has stood vacant since the discount retailer shuttered the location last year.

“We would love to be on Capitol Hill,” a spokesperson for the nonprofit retailer tells CHS about the project. “It really is a neighborhood that appreciates the recycle, repurpose, reuse values.” Continue reading →